Before you can get started writing applications for
the phone, you must install the Windows Phone Developer Tools. To get
started you will need to go to http://windowsphone.com/developers
to download the tools. This web site is the starting point for
downloading the tools as well as access to the forums for further
questions about creating applications. To install the tools you must
meet minimum system requirements as shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Windows Phone 7 Tools Requirements
| Requirement | Description |
|---|
| Operating System | Windows 7, x86 or x64 (all but Starter Edition); or
Windows Vista SP2, x86 or x64 (all but Starter Edition) |
| Memory | 2GB RAM |
| Disk Space | 3GB Free Space |
| Graphics Card | DirectX 10 Capable card with a WDDM 1.1 driver |
Once you meet the
requirements, you can run the vm_web.exe that you downloaded from the
web site to install the tools. The Tools includes Visual Studio 2010
Express for Windows Phone, Blend Express for Windows Phone and the
Software Development Kit (or SDK). Visual Studio Express is the coding
environment for the Windows Phone. Blend Express is the design tool for
phone applications. And the SDK is a set of libraries for creating
phone applications as well as an emulator to be able to create
application without a device.
Visual Studio is the
primary tool for writing the code for your phone applications. The
Windows Phone 7 Tools install an express version of Visual Studio
specifically for phone development but if you already have Visual
Studio 2010 installed on your machine, the phone tools will also be
integrated into this version of Visual Studio. The workflow for writing
code in both versions of Visual Studio is the same. While both the full
and the expression editions of Visual Studio are equal in what they can
do in developing application for the phone, in my examples I will be
using Visual Studio’s Express Edition for the Windows Phone 7. In
addition, I will specifically be using Blend 4 Express, not the full
version of Blend.
